Anatomy of a Golf Course by .....

[Craig Van Egmond]

Ben Crenshaw??   Oops.  Saw this recommendation on Amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1580800718/qid=1103561567/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3430599-3146500?v=glance&s=books


Only $16.84 though, a bargain!!

[Dan Kelly]

Curiosity: How and why did that hole on the cover (is that PGA West?) come to be on the cover?

[Tom_Doak]

I sent about twenty photos for possible cover shots for the book for the publisher's consideration.  [Among them was the photo of Cruden Bay later used as the cover for The Confidential Guide.]

The publisher chose the PGA West photo because he thought it showed all of the elements of a golf course that I had written about -- green, contour, bunkers, water, etc. -- and he thought it was a striking photo.  I went with his judgment; it's the insides that mattered to me.

[Dan Kelly]

Tom --

Thanks for the answer.

I once overruled a publisher on a book cover. The artwork they'd come up with was sappy and saccharine -- and only very marginally representative of the book's contents. I objected loudly and got a very competent art-director friend to mock up a "better" cover and send it to them. They took it as we sent it, with only the most minor modifications.

The book sold about 37 copies.

I've wondered, ever since, if their rotten cover would have produced a best-seller.

Dan

[Joe Hancock]

Dan,

That reminds me of a funny story, concerning my father-in-law and a "barn sale" I was having at my course. I agreed to let him place the advertisemnet in the newspaper. The first item he listed...the attention grabber...was a "4 foot sailfish". My thought was "who the heck would come to a barn sale because of a sailfish?" As soon as the paper delivered, a man showed up to buy the sailfish ($35!)....just what I figured people were looking for at a golf course maintenance facility!

Go with what the common folk suggest, I guess....

Joe